The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicle #1)

Told in Kvothe’s own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.

The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

Published 27th March 2007

830 pages

Rating: Should Read, 4 stars

Read from 27th February to 10th March

There’s so much to talk about but at the same time it is so overwhelming that I don’t know what I’m meant to write about. So with that shaky start let’s give this a go.

So this started off in a weird way. It wasn’t what I was expecting but I was really enjoying the writing so I continued on. I liked when we FINALLY got to the story itself. It took a long time but persevere. I really liked how it started to build the characters, the world, and the foreshadowing.

It was so focussed on the details and building everything from the beginning that I’m surprised we didn’t start at birth. You could tell how well thought through and researched everything was. Everything had a basis and this was such a fleshed out world in terms of the small scale rather than the large overarching atmosphere.

At some points it was really hard to deal with all the different elements that were going on because it felt like dealing with everything from someone’s life. And this is exactly what it’s supposed to be.

I don’t like Kvothe, he’s fine and you feel sympathy but at the same time I just wouldn’t be friend with him. And you know what? That’s all right with me. I’m also not a fan of Denna, she’s an unpleasant woman, and before you say that women don’t like her, it’s not because of those reasons.

Too many bad things happen in this book that it’s impossible to connect with the characters and the situation. It’s definitely not the strong point.

There were elements throughout the story that I really wasn’t expecting. We do get some more traditional fantasy elements but they have their own spin on them.

I liked the university but it was just really weird. I didn’t understand its purpose or structure and promotions. One moment it was slow and we were taking it day by day and then it flows by and skips time around the tuition time. It was just so weird.

There are so many small elements throughout the story and it just really all got so muddled about. I liked all the elements but only one was focussed on at a time that it sort of ruined the fluidity of the story. Never mind, the stupid decisions that Kvothe makes and how annoying that makes him.

My favourite thing was when we go back to present day. I just really liked the dynamic and the small stages of reflection that we got. It just made the story that more interesting for me and that was one of my favourite parts of it.